Thursday, January 4, 2018

Nothing can destroy value and freedom as rapidly as government measures.

Cannabis stocks are sharply lower on the news that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to rescind an Obama-era policy that gave protections to states that have legalized marijuana.

Nevada-based Cannabis Sativa Inc.is down, -29.16% The company is involved in the research, development and licensing of marijuana products. Colorado-based cannabis farmer GrowGeneration Corp. is down -26.02%.

The problem is that most of the US population does not know that the federal government has no authority/jurisdiction to determine legal status of marijuana, other than perhaps inside a “federal zone” (US military camps, ports of entry, etcetera) and the state governments rarely stand up to the feds.

The US Constitution specifically states only three crimes: piracy, counterfeiting, and treason. They may not do much plundering on the high seas but the feds and their minion’s surely are guilty of the majority of counterfeiting and treason in the US. To paraphrase Nixon, if you are the government it isn’t illegal.

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution containing the so called “General Welfare Clause”, “Necessary and Proper Clause” and the “Commerce Clause” is the typical excuse for the feds to rule over everything not specified in the Constitution. Article I, Section 8 is short, only 429 words. Anyone reading this without an ulterior motive could not find where it gives the feds the right to determine the legal status of and or regulate any substance, especially when it does not cross borders when the statist like to bring up the “Commerce Clause” also in Article I, Section 8.

Baby Bush may not actually have said it but it is hard to argue with calling the Constitution a “Goddamned piece of paper”.

Good time to buy those stocks. Sessions does not play with a full deck but this move will have the opposite of the results intended: It will accelerate the Congressional attempts to strike down the federal prohibition (and category 1 status of cannabis) and leave "regulation" to the states. Not a perfect solution but better than the current status quo.